This month we review a small yet dense out-of-print book titled Gymnastics and Tumbling. First published by the U.S. Navy in 1944, Gymnastics and Tumbling is today an obscure reference in danger of extinction. We believe it is an indispensable resource for CrossFitters and intend to keep it alive.

Shortly after the United States' entrance into World War II, the United States Navy implemented a physical training program for future pilots based on training and practicing various sports: "Successful coaches were commissioned so that the Navy might have the best instruction available." The successes, methods, and refinements of these coaches-turned-officers culminated in the issuance of the Naval Aviation Physical Training Manuals by the U.S. Navy in 1944.

The manuals were prepared by and for the newly commissioned officers from their experiences in teaching thousands of aviation cadets.

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7 Comments on “Gymnastics & Tumbling”

Thanks for scanning the entire book for us. The information looked so valuable (and easily implemented) that I thought I'd go ahead and purchase the book. I was able to find a copy on abebooks.com for $11.25 including shipping. Anyone looking out there, you have to make sure it's published by the navy, there is another book from '76 published by the V-five association of america. Don't know what that is, if it's the same book or different, but it is as low as $1.90.

I got one, too. $17.00, S&H included. It's coming from a library that was doing some "clearing out". Their loss, my gain. Besides the obvious benefits to my training, I'm going to use it to help convince my youngest that gymastics aren't only for girls. He's good, and I want him to keep it up.

Thanks for this. I hope you didn't get RSI from scanning the whole book! I got here because the book showed up when I searched on Robert C. Osborn, a famous WW II and post-war illustrator showed up in a Google search. I'm writing the Wikipedia article about him, and if I don't find a lot of illustrations by him in the book, it'll become just a footnote in that article. However, I was a gymnast when I was a kid, and reading this makes me realize that the History section of the Wikipedia article on gymnastics is sadly lacking.

The CrossFit Journal is a chronicle of the empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed CrossFit program. Our mission is to provide a venue for contributing coaches, trainers, athletes, and researchers to ponder, study, debate, and define fitness and collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.